Learn about this topic in these articles:

Assorted References

…form of the vitamin, although retinal, or vitamin A aldehyde, is the form involved in the visual process in the retina of the eye. A metabolite of retinol with high biological activity may be an even more direct active form than retinol. The ester form of retinol is the storage…

…vertebrate rods the chromophore is retinal, the aldehyde of vitamin A1. When retinal absorbs a photon, the double bond between the 11th and 12th carbon atoms flips, thus reconfiguring the molecule from the 11-cis to the all-trans form. This in turn triggers a molecular transduction cascade, resulting in the closure…

…chromatophore group was identified as retinal, which is the substance formed by oxidation of vitamin A; on prolonged exposure of the eye to light, retinal can be found, free from the protein opsin, in the retina. When the eye is allowed to remain in the dark, the rhodopsin is regenerated…

…which in humans is called retinal—the aldehyde of vitamin A. When retinal absorbs a photon of light, it changes its configuration (from the bent 11-cis form to the straight all-trans form), setting off a series of molecular reactions that lead, within a few milliseconds, to a change in the flow…

, retinal) and the protein together constitute one of a large family of membrane-bound photoreceptors, or rhodopsins. These protein-pigment complexes are responsible for all of the body’s responses to light, including vision, growth and division of melanocytes (tanning), regulation of circadian rhythms (the body’s 24-hour cycle),…

…all known animal photoreceptors use retinal as their chromophore. It absorbs light strongly, and, when incorporated into protein, its absorption matches the solar spectrum closely, so it is sensitive in very low light. Also, it is quite stable, so spontaneous isomerization, which would cause false images, almost never occurs. The…

work of

…was particularly interested in modeling retinal, a large complex molecule, found in the eye and crucial to vision, that changes shape when exposed to light. In 1974 Karplus, Warshel, and collaborators published a paper that successfully modeled retinal’s change in shape.

…was particularly interested in modeling retinal, a large complex molecule, found in the eye and crucial to vision, that changes shape when exposed to light. In 1974 Warshel, Karplus, and collaborators successfully modeled retinal’s change in shape. By that time Warshel had reunited with Levitt at the Weizmann Institute and…